A 24-year-old Kurdish refugee from Syria, on trial today accused of a deadly knife attack in the Austrian town of Filach, told the court he would kill again if he could, reporters attending the trial reported.
The defendant, who has not been named, was immediately arrested after killing a 14-year-old boy and wounding five other people in the southern Austrian town of Filach with a pocketknife in February last year. He confessed to committing the attack after pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group.
Prosecutors told the court in the city of Klagenfurt that the young man “radicalised himself in a flash” on TikTok, surprising even his own brother, Austrian media reported.
Asked by the judge with the help of an interpreter whether he would commit the crime again if given the chance, the defendant nodded in the affirmative, media outlets including Austria’s state television network ORF and the APA news agency reported.
The man is charged with manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and terrorism-related crimes and faces a life sentence if convicted.
The defendant did not say much at the start of his trial, where emergency security measures were put in place and journalists were banned from having electronic equipment inside the court.
It was the second deadly Islamist attack in Austria after a gunman killed four people and wounded 22 others before police shot and killed him in Vienna in November 2020. The trial in Filach, which is expected to last until Thursday, coincides with that of a 21-year-old accused of planning an Islamist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna in 2024.
The defendant in that trial, Beran A., pleaded guilty to charges related to that attempt. A verdict in that case is also expected on Thursday.
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